Business Court

Division 3B

Patrick K. Sweeten of Austin was appointed to the Texas Business Court—Third Division by Governor Abbott.  He is a seasoned trial lawyer with over 27 years of experience litigating in federal and state court, both plaintiff and defense side, including as lead counsel in pharmaceutical, securities, multi-district litigation, voting rights litigation, and deceptive trade practices and common law fraud actions. Previously, he served as the Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation and Chief of the Special Litigation Unit for the Office of the Texas Attorney General. While at the Office of Attorney General, he built a new division, oversaw more than a dozen large trial teams managing complex litigation impacting the State of Texas, and secured well over a quarter of a billion dollars in settlements and recoveries. He also served as the state’s lead counsel in defense of the 2014, 2017, and 2022 rounds of redistricting litigation, and in 2018 successfully defended the state against challenges to its century-old method of electing Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals judges statewide. He also successfully defended the State in approximately ten federal lawsuits seeking judicial modification of Texas election laws prior to the November 2020 election.  Before his service with the Texas Attorney General, he was an associate and shareholder for close to a decade at Delano Law Offices, L.L.C. in Springfield, Illinois.  Sweeten received a Bachelor of Arts from UT Austin and a Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law.